Terrorist Attack / Germany

[Boac]

As Cape says, the question that needs to be asked is HOW do you control borders in Europe ex-Schengen? There is no way that the 27 remaining countries of the EU could seal their borders. Once the bad folk are in Europe, via Italy/Greece/wherever, they have complete freedom of movement. It requires walls/fences and immigration posts on EVERY minor road that crosses a border and, if you are serious, across every field that spans borders. No way! The only secure border is ours with the water around us, and even then it tends to be porous.

At best, Europe could control 'official' immigration via ports and airports but never stop determined border crossings. Once they are 'in' they are in.

I don't think Schengen should be blamed. Blame instead those who welcomed the millions and thereby encouraged more and more.

[Rwy in Sight]

Capetonian, I hope you don't take it as a personal attack but when the countries you mention don't do their share, the EU agency supposedly in charge or the border FRONTEX acts as a welcome committee rather as a goalkeeper. So, instead of destroying the Schengen agreement we all find so useful for our life we should ask people in power to do their jobs.

[500N]

Doing their jobs ? Lol, u mean making sure they feather their nests and find other ways of sucking more money from countries.

I do hope this whole Merkel, immigrant terrorist thing causes the EU to lose power and even collapse.

[More Aviation]

Doing their jobs ? Lol, u mean making sure they feather their nests and find other ways of sucking more money from countries.

I do hope this whole Merkel, immigrant terrorist thing causes the EU to lose power and even collapse.

Why on earth do you bother, you living out there midst the corks and flies in Wagga Wagga? Why do the travails of a civilised German hausfrau and Chancellor and the leader of the Christian Democratic Union divert you so?

I think we should be told!

MA

[Capetonian]

Capetonian, I hope you don't take it as a personal attack but ........................ instead of destroying the Schengen agreement we all find so useful for our life we should ask people in power to do their jobs.

Of course I don't take it a personal attack if someone disagrees with a view I express.

The point is that whilst theoretically your suggestion is correct, it's idealistic to think that politicians of any flavour will ever do what they have promised.

Frontex, and I have an Irish friend who was closely involved with them, but left his position because he couldn't come to terms with what they are doing, is acting as a rescuer rather than a deterrent, and whilst the humanitarianism is admirable, this all jeopardises and detriments the lives of hundreds of millions of people for the sake of saving a few thousand.

I do find the Schengen agreement useful. I would also find it useful not to have to lock my house and car, and not to keep my money and valuables in a safe. Unfortunately, that is unrealistic and impractical. Schengen is part of the problem, and I realise that abolishing is not the solution, but it goes a long way towards a solution. On balance, I would rather even have to get a visa for every country I travel to, than ave open borders.

[Airborne Aircrew]

There's a chap over here that states that a nation is defined by it's borders, language and culture...

There's something to be said for all three...

[Capetonian]

I think that's a very wise statement, and one of the things I detest about the EU is that it is trying to blur and eventually remove those defining characteristics.

We have lost pesetas, drachmas, Deutschmarks, Schillings, escudos, francs, gulden, koruna .......... all part of national culture. We have lost borders,and the right of each nation to define its laws, what it eats and drinks, and it won't be long before languages will start to blur and merge.

I may be a traditionalist, an old fuddy-duddy, behind the times, and more, but I am vehemently opposed to this, and always have been.

[500N]

Doing their jobs ? Lol, u mean making sure they feather their nests and find other ways of sucking more money from countries.

I do hope this whole Merkel, immigrant terrorist thing causes the EU to lose power and even collapse.

Why on earth do you bother, you living out there midst the corks and flies in Wagga Wagga? Why do the travails of a civilised German hausfrau and Chancellor and the leader of the Christian Democratic Union divert you so?

I think we should be told!

MA

OK, whilst I sit here in the heat, dust and flies of outback Oz with my 4 ltr cask / flaggon of wine (or VB ),
it's ideological.

The left, starting with the UN, continued by the EU and a whole heap of numbskulls in each country are allowing
a nanny state culture to pervade our society. They like and want to push their fcked agenda worldwide
it is our right to do everything we can to stop it.

As with all politics (in most democratic countries), it ebbs and flows depending on who is elected,
like in Oz we went from very left Labor to Right Wing Abbot who very swiftly dismantled the Welfare state
and the never ending funding to that side and their apparatus that had been set up (read never ending
Government funded teet )

The problem with the UN and EU is that they are NOT elected and so are even more pervasive, especially when
orgs like this dictate things like gun control and a whole host of nanny state decisions that should be left local or state.

[Magnus]

500N, perhaps it should also be pointed out to the geographically-challenged MA that Melbourne is in SA, but Wagga Wagga is in NSW.

[More Aviation]

So 500N you seem to equate the EU and UN in some way and conflate their 'pernicious' effects upon Australian gun control laws. Help me out here mate, I am confused. How is the EU (for example) having any effect on gun control laws in Australia?

MA

[More Aviation]

500N, perhaps it should also be pointed out to the geographically-challenged MA that Melbourne is in SA, but Wagga Wagga is in NSW.

Magnus, he could live in the north, the east, the west or anywhere for all I know! I actually really thought he lived in Boing Boing in the North.

Perhaps he actually lives in Germany given his fixation on events there.

MA

[Capetonian]

Thank you Italy. In Germany he would have been released after three years because of a 'difficult childhood'.

[Magnus]

MA, his location is shown as "The Great Southern Land - Melbourne, Aus".

[More Aviation]

MA, his location is shown as "The Great Southern Land - Melbourne, Aus".

Never bothered to look Magnus, to be honest, possibly because Melbourne sounds so normal, reasonable and civilised for a chap like 500N. I mean surely he would be better suited to Boing Boing, Bong Bong, Burrumbuttock or even Cock Wash!

MA

[BenThere]

Melbourne sounds so normal, reasonable and civilised

That's why 500N chose to live there. It's obvious to me.

Also, I thought Melbourne was in Victoria, not SA, Magnus. As a Yank, though, I'm not supposed to be geographically aware. Perhaps my sources are wrong.

[Magnus]

BenThere, You are, of course, correct and I was mistaken. Adelaide's the biggie in SA. Sorry, all.

[More Aviation]

Melbourne sounds so normal, reasonable and civilised

That's why 500N chose to live there. It's obvious to me.

Also, I thought Melbourne was in Victoria, not SA, Magnus. As a Yank, though, I'm not supposed to be geographically aware. Perhaps my sources are wrong.

A double dose of irony BenThere. My gosh, never let it be said that Michigan doesn't have a sense of humour!

MA

[500N]

So 500N you seem to equate the EU and UN in some way and conflate their 'pernicious' effects upon Australian gun control laws. Help me out here mate, I am confused. How is the EU (for example) having any effect on gun control laws in Australia?

MA

Stop cherry picking the one item. Look at the whole picture.

I'll answer more when I get back.

[OFSO]

Seems like our favourite ISIS Truck Driver travelled from Germany to Italy via France and the TGV, changing at Lyon. A lot of media comments said "how could he do that undiscovered ?" Well, I came that way tonight (via Valence TGV just south of Lyon) and needless to say there were no controls of any sort anywhere. Meanwhile those prats in Brussels say the open-borders policy of Schengen "made no difference".

Sigh.

[BenThere]

Magnus, to be fair, I had the advantage of spending November mostly in Adelaide, an excellent city with more urban parkland than I've ever seen, bounded by superb beaches, containing great eateries, accessible wineries nearby, charming city pockets of creative shops and entertainment - all in all a marvelous place and welcome climatic warmth. Quite enjoyed spending four days in center Brisbane, too, along the river downtown. I've never been to Melbourne, but I've read and am told it's even better. Australian culture is live and well. Can't say as much for Old Europe.

I've heard rumblings that Western Europe's bread and butter tourism industry is in crisis - apparently well-heeled travelers don't wish to partake, at the rate they once did, of all the cultural enrichment that has taken place over the past ten years or so, and accelerated this year. I certainly have little desire to return, as I saw Western Europe when it was much better than now, and want to remember it that way. I'd consider Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and the Baltics, though. They refused to capitulate, and have fought to retain much of that European charm.